Temps on steaks.

If I were your chef and you asked me to cook a steak to 138 degrees I would club you with a skillet.

PH

Ditto what PH said.

In a high quality restaurant I trust the chef to cook it medium-rare when I ask for it so. If it's wrong- back it goes. If it's not a high quality restaurant I know that I'm taking my chances by ordering a steak, and I'm less likely to be as picky. I would never specify temperatures.

OTOH, with Tuna I will often be specific that they should wave it over the grill so that the edges get a bit of color, then serve it to me raw in the middle. There's nothing worse than overcooked tuna.

I also agree with PH. However, I can also see why people may do the temp request by grossie's comment.

quote:

Originally posted by grossie:
In a high quality restaurant I trust the chef to cook it medium-rare when I ask for it so. If it's wrong- back it goes.

Med. rare is not objectively measured but subjectively. Hence, temp specifications will just transform the problem into an objective one. There can be no hiccups about it if you stick an instant-read thermometer into it and it reads 138.

I get that it makes it more objective but does the guy asking for it at 138 have a thermometer at his table? How would you know whether it was 135-145...I doubt most could tell the difference.

quote:

Originally posted by jgreen:
I get that it makes it more objective but does the guy asking for it at 138 have a thermometer at his table? How would you know whether it was 135-145...I doubt most could tell the difference.

The point is verifiability!

As a chef, I would absolutely freak out if someone ordered a steak to an exact temp. I'd be a jerk and over cook it to well and let it cool to 138. I'd even leave the thermometer in it for them.

I put out a nice, 18 ounce ribeye, med rare and it was sent back. the server said it was undercooked. The steak was cut right down the middle where it was indeed rare. The outside was medium rare, where people tend to start eating a steak. As any food is taken off of o heat source, it continues to cook. We pull out our prime ribs at 115 degrees and it jumps at least 15 more after it's out of the oven. If the diner cut into the steak starting with anywhere on the outside, the middle would've been med rare by the time they had goten to it.

Berno, you make a very good point about the how meat continues to cook! There is a restaurant here (in Denver) that I visit on occassion and they insist on cutting the steak down the middle for me upon arrival. I've asked them several times not to do it, that I'm sure the steak is fine, but they keep doing it!
Once the waiter tried to pull the plate out of my hand saying the steak wasn't "quite medium" and he was going to return it to the kitchen. I almost had to wrestle him to get my plate back!

Though, I hate when the person in front of me at a coffee house orders coffee at a specific temp. I'm sure I would be equally miffed if done in a restaurant.

quote:

Originally posted by Berno:
I put out a nice, 18 ounce ribeye, med rare and it was sent back. the server said it was undercooked. The steak was cut right down the middle where it was indeed rare. The outside was medium rare, where people tend to start eating a steak. As any food is taken off of o heat source, it continues to cook. We pull out our prime ribs at 115 degrees and it jumps at least 15 more after it's out of the oven. If the diner cut into the steak starting with anywhere on the outside, the middle would've been med rare by the time they had goten to it.

I don't buy that. A resting roast's temperature clearly rises, but a steak that's sat on a plate for a couple of minutes MINIMUM by the time it's served, if it's rare in the middle, will likely remain rare.

quote:

Originally posted by jgreen:
I get that it makes it more objective but does the guy asking for it at 138 have a thermometer at his table? How would you know whether it was 135-145...I doubt most could tell the difference.

So the last time someone did order a steak to 138 I had a little fun and told the chef "He said it was ok, but it looked more like 141 degrees to him." At that point my chef tried to club me with a skillet. I guess some people just have no sense of humor.

quote:

Originally posted by jgreen:
I get that it makes it more objective but does the guy asking for it at 138 have a thermometer at his table? How would you know whether it was 135-145...I doubt most could tell the difference.

No. I can absolutely tell the difference between a 135 steak and a 145 steak. 134 v 135, no. But medium rare v. medium. Yes. I can absolutely tell that.

On this subject...

I do this in ONE instance and one instance only...

When ordering pork I ask for it medium rare but will then sometimes request that, since I do not know what the restaurant's deffinition of medium-rare is, that it be cooked to at least 130F, which is the temperature that Trichanosis dies at.

Other than that? "Medium rare" and if it comes bck cold in the middle or medium-well+ it goes back. If it comes back rare but cooked through, or medium, I'm still ok.

quote:

Originally posted by Berno:
As a chef, I would absolutely freak out if someone ordered a steak to an exact temp. I'd be a jerk and over cook it to well and let it cool to 138. I'd even leave the thermometer in it for them.

That's not very christian of you.

Please don't wait for a customer to request something of you to "be a jerk".....

He's heading to Hell for that to roast for eternity in the flames of the damned.

quote:

Originally posted by ND:
He's heading to Hell for that to roast for eternity in the flames of the damned.

That's a funny way of saying "well done"

Just knock the horns off, wipe its nasty ass and chuck it on a plate. The only reason to get picky about beef is if it's overcooked. There's rare, medium rare, overcooked, and just order something else and stop ruining good food.

Yeah, I think ordering doneness by temp is silly.

However, taking some of the variability out of each person's taste is smart. I've started seeing more and more restaurants defining doneness by interior color, i.e. "cool center" is blue, "rare" is fully red in the center, "med rare" is pink, etc etc.

Curiously enough, my last two work trips to Europe I got meat MORE done than I wanted (slightly, not enough to send back). I think the waiters (or cook) corrected for the fact that I'm american... Next time, I'll specify.

Me? I only ask for my meat done in Celsius. Sooooooo distinctly better. Fahrenheit, is so...yesterday, don't you think?.

There was a guy that would come into this restaurant I worked at in college and he wanted his steak served at room temperature.